Founded in 2002, the Society encourages the creation of watercolor at all skill levels and promotes interest, appreciation and enjoyment of watercolor and watermedia. Please feel free to attend one of our meetings. Monthly meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month, at 10 a.m. at the Cincinnati Art Club, 1021 Parkside Place, Cincinnati, Ohio, unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Marilyn Bishop is our first, past and current President! She founded the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society where she has served not only as President, but also as Program Chair, Exhibit Chair, Publicity Author, Library Manager and Historian.

New Richmond Rocks

Street scene along Front Street in New Richmond on
the Ohio River.

Sold

Following her academic degrees awarded at the University of Dayton from the Department of Communication and Department of Religious Studies, Marilyn began to learn the art of watercolor. Her enthusiasm led to further study at the Springmaid Watermedia Workshops, Cincinnati Art Academy Community Education, The Rosewood Center, Sinclair College Community Education and Baker Hunt Foundation. She has learned also through self-study using videos and books as her guides. She has taught watercolor classes at area recreation centers and has given workshops for the Watercolor Society.

Marilyn enjoys painting in new ways to create interesting texture and shape. In addition to watercolors, she creates monotype images, collages of non-objective design using rice paper and stained paper collages.

Blue ChairsInside the Ross Goudy Historic site in New
Richmond, Ohio. Imaginary colors on classic furnishings.

Sold

Recently she has been painting watercolors in the style of Matisse and Judy Anderson - lots of color and cubist sections. Each painting has its origin in scenes of New Richmond, Ohio. Marilyn takes photos during festivals and events that celebrate the heritage of New Richmond. Some photos are taken inside the Front Street Cafe and others inside the historic Ross Goudy House. Most are just street scenes during events. Then the buildings and people are combined and a painting is designed which is painted intuitively using pure color and contrasting colors. The color wheel comes in handy!

Festival New RichmondStreet scene in New Richmond, Ohio. Musician was performer at weekly music gigs inside the Front Street Cafe.

Sold

Marilyn says "After the drawing is on the paper I start painting without knowing just where I am going!"

Rhythm in RedMusician inside Front Street Cafe where music
is offered three nights a week. There were two women; we see the hands
and keyboard of one and the other was a drummer. Her clothes and hair
were all creative interpretations designed to show the energy of the
performers.

On display at the Front Street
Cafe, 120 Front Street, New Richmond, Ohio

Her original watercolors have been shown at Gallery St. John in Beavercreek, Ohio; Favorite Things in Bridgetown, Ohio; Row Hose Gallery in Milford, Ohio; Red Tree Gallery in Oakley, Ohio; Front Street Gallery in New Richmond, Ohio and at the Essex Studios in East Walnut Hills.

For more information about Marilyn, click on her blog here (or click on our blog roll any time).

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

We were impressed with Trish’s
lengthy list of work and accomplishments.Trish came all the way from New Carlisle, Ohio to speak on Inspirations
for Paintings.Trish sees herself as a
Teacher, Painter, Dreamer, Believer, and an Artist.First of all, she loves Color, emotional
color.She likes to “capture moments”.She likes unpredictability and
surprises.She surprised us when she
told that she had been in the U.S.Army.

Trish brought some of her books, canvases and plaques for sale.

Trish’s main
goal for her visit is to “Inspire us”, because that makes her happy. She thinks it is more important to tell a
story through your eyes than to have perfect technical skills. One can paint a beautiful, realistic apple,
and that is very nice. Or, one could
paint an apple with a bite out of it, and a little hand reaching into the
picture. How much more interesting.

Trish has
been inspired mostly by books and words, particularly a book by Ann Boskamp,
“One Thousand Gifts”, and a poet, Mary Oliver.
She loves fonts, and letters, and sentences, and partial sentences –
which she has been using in her latest paintings. One of the paintings she brought to show us
had a part of a French love poem on the wall behind the people. She very effectively captured a “moment” in
this painting. She asked for ideas for
scenarios that the painting seemed to
capture, and was rewarded with four or five different thoughts.

Trish uses
“journals” – which are usually large books that she buys for small prices, to
paint in over the actual words, and captures feelings and colors and ideas,
particularly when she travels. She can
then use these as inspiration for a large painting when she is in her studio. Many times
she takes a period of time in quiet, and goes through some pages, sometimes
backwards, not reading the text, but letting her eyes pick up some of the
words.She says that we will see the words
that mean something to us now.Just let
it happen; let it inspire us!She
brought some of her inspirational canvases for purchase.

Trish showed us some of her journals.

Trish prepares the surface in a special manner before she
starts painting. Sometimes she uses a
new product, Hi-Flow, sometimes Gesso, to coat the paper or canvas. She sometimes paints with all watercolor,
sometimes with acrylics, and sometimes mixed.
For the demo, she was using Robert Doak (one-man operation) watercolors,
which are very pigmented, on 140 lb cold press Arches paper. If she is putting words “behind” the
subject, she prints them out on a piece of tissue paper, then covers them with
mat media because she can “lift up” from that.
She also sometimes uses Gesso to cover up some of the words. She also loves Yupo.

She had already drawn her two women subjects at a table. She started her painting with seemingly
broad, random strokes. She loves
painting people’s hair, coming from a background of hair stylists. She talked about how brushstrokes are
important, and can make a difference in how a painting turns out. She used a lot of water; she likes to let the
paint mix on the page. Trish feels a
freedom with the backgrounds because she doesn’t care if it’s perfect. She is most interested in getting faces and
expressions on faces like she wants them – to “capture the moment”.

This unfinished painting is of Trish's two daughters "sharing a moment".

Trish worked on her painting upside down - she felt it needed more work in the upper left hand corner (lower right here)

Once she turned the painting right side up, Trish was much happier with it.

When Trish is almost finished with her painting, she turns it
upside to see if it is “balanced”, that is, her darks and lights, her shapes
and colors, etc. She has a theory – that
one either instinctively “gets” color or value, but has to learn the
other. She believes that she “got”
color, but had to learn how to balance values.

Above are two of Trish's works - note the use of words in each.

From one of her Instructors, Trish learned; “Oh, would
you look at this!”. What she would like
for us to take away from her Presentation is;
“Pay Attention; Be
Astonished; Tell About It!”

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

On a bright
sunny day in July, our President, Marilyn Bishop, called the meeting to
order. She welcomed back member Taylor
Bush, and guests Jacklyn Sullivan, a newbie painter who is from Westwood, and
Deb Ward students Laura Crew and Mary Ellen Klenk.

Carol McAfee
passed out invitations to our Annual Art Show/Exhibit that members can
distribute to family and friends. After
all the hard work and effort that we all put into the Show, we want to be sure
that lots of people come to see our Art.

Treasurer
Sally Wester gave her report. Our
finances are in good shape. If members
ever want to see the specifics, Sally will be happy to talk with you about
them.

Announcements:

Diana Marra has won two awards – 3rd Place at the Evendale Fine Art Exhibit,
and the Purchase Award at Art Comes Alive!
This show runs through July 11 at Art Design Consultants in downtown Cincinnati. Diana has also been published in
International Contemporary Artists, Vol 8, and is showing at “Art on the
Commons”, Aug 10 in KetteringOH.

Deb Ward won
the Outstanding Watercolor Award at the Hoosier Salon, for her painting Japanese Tea which
also sold. This show is from June 26
through Aug. 23. Deb is also offering a
workshop at the Cincinnati Art Club on Painting Silver & Lace on Oct.
26-27, 10-4 each day. Cost: $125. Please contact Deb for more information.

Marilyn told
about her pieces and sales at the Café in New Richmond. Howard told us the Tony Couch workshop on
7/14 has a few open places.

Membership: We have four more new members; keep letting
your friends know about the great things we have going on here at the Society!

Joyce
Grothaus gave a report on our upcoming Bus Day-Trip – Aug 6. We are very close to having enough people
going. A number of people at the meeting
handed in their Reservation and their check.
For those who live “up North”, and wish to avoid driving down to
Cincinnati to get on the bus, we have designated the Mariott Hotel in West
Chester (right along I-75, exit 19, near Union Center Blvd) as a pickup
spot. We strongly suggest that if you
take this option, you let Joyce know that you will meet us there, and be there
by 9:45. We cannot be waiting
for you at the Art Club, and we will be stopping for only a few minutes at the
Mariott to pick up the people who are waiting there. We certainly don’t want to miss anybody!

Carol McAfee
gave a report on our Show/Exhibit at The Barn in August. She has been working very hard, and has
almost everything in place. She asked
for just a couple more volunteers (which she obtained later in the meeting).

Program
Coordinator Joan O’Leary gave us a rundown on the upcoming programs for the
remainder of this year:

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Discover the visual expressions of local watercolor artists at the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society in their summer exhibit at “The Barn” 6980 Cambridge Ave., in Mariemont, Ohio, August 16 through August 24. Hours on the weekends: 1-4 p.m.;Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The grand opening on August 17, 1-4 p.m. offers the opportunity to meet the artists who capture pleasing harmony in a variety of subjects from traditional still lifes to landscapes. The free show is open to the public.

Juror for the show is Nancy Nordloh Neville, an award winning nationally recognized watercolorist. She will select three paintings for prize money plus paintings for Honorable Mention.

The Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society is the only organization in the Tri-state area that focuses exclusively on water-based painting. Although watercolor is the primary paint, members also use gouache, casein, and acrylic on surfaces such as paper, Yupo (a plastic product), board, canvas and hand-made paper. The art might be brushed, sprayed, poured or printed onto the surface.

Begun in 2002 with the intent of offering a gathering place to paint, the organization quickly grew from 29 members to over 100. Annual workshops, exhibits, and tours are available to members for $45 annually. Over 50 percent of the members consider themselves advanced artists.

The watercolor society offers painting demonstrations followed by open studio painting, the first Wednesday of March through December at 10 a.m. at the Cincinnati Art Club, 1021 Parkside Place in Mt. Adams. Guests are welcome to attend.

Diana Marra will have a Solo Exhibit at Evendale Cultural Arts Center, Opening Friday March 2 from 6-8. The Exhibit is called "A Taste of Asia" and will of course have Sake and Sushi in addition to the usual wine-and-cheese Opening fare. Exhibit is also open 12-4 on Sat. and Sunday March 3 & 4. Diana will offer a mini-workshop - "A Taste" - on Wed. March 14, 6:30-8, cost $20 / all materials provided in 3 versions of oriental-style painting. For more information contact Diana.

Diana Marra will also have an opening at Christ Church Cathedral, 318 E. 4th Street, Cincinnati "Flowers Everywhere" Thursday March 1 from 5:30-8 p.m. and will have a painting in the Cincinnati Art Club Associates Show at Parkside Place where we meet for GCWS, Friday March 2 6-9.